Broadcom (Irvine, Calif.) has started sampling the NLA12000 series of processors with production volumes slated for the first half of 2013.

The processor series is aimed at 3G/4G mobile infrastructure, data center and enterprise environments. Broadcom claims that its NetRoute algorithmic search technology delivers the highest deterministic performance and low latency independent of database or signature complexity, with support for up to 2 million IPv6 routes.

The processors are capable of 2.4 billion decisions per second (BDPS) to address growing line rates for IPv4 and IPv6 packets and they include multiple 12.5 Gbps SerDes for 300 Gbps aggregate bandwidth, Broadcom said.

"Concurrently achieving high performance and deterministic low latency irrespective of the search database size or complexity is the differentiator for Broadcom's new heterogeneous KBPs. Combining NetRoute technology with its massively parallel hardware enables Broadcom's KBPs to attain a low power profile for next-generation IPv6 processing," said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst with The Linley Group, in a statement issued by Broadcom.

Sorry, this is a search engine, not a network processor. Although the NLA12000 is more complex than a TCAM, it is still a device optimized for a narrow set of uses. A network processor, in comparison, is customer-programmable (i.e., a real processor) and can address different functions in different designs depending on its software.